In the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth day of the month, the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle of the covenant. The children of Israel went forward on their journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai; and the cloud stayed in the wilderness of Paran. They first went forward according to the commandment of Yahweh by Moses.
First, the standard of the camp of the children of Judah went forward according to their armies. Nahshon the son of Amminadab was over his army. Nethanel the son of Zuar was over the army of the tribe of the children of Issachar. Eliab the son of Helon was over the army of the tribe of the children of Zebulun. The tabernacle was taken down; and the sons of Gershon and the sons of Merari, who bore the tabernacle, went forward. The standard of the camp of Reuben went forward according to their armies. Elizur the son of Shedeur was over his army. Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai was over the army of the tribe of the children of Simeon. Eliasaph the son of Deuel was over the army of the tribe of the children of Gad.
The Kohathites set forward, bearing the sanctuary. The others set up the tabernacle before they arrived.
The standard of the camp of the children of Ephraim set forward according to their armies. Elishama the son of Ammihud was over his army. Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur was over the army of the tribe of the children of Manasseh. Abidan the son of Gideoni was over the army of the tribe of the children of Benjamin.
The standard of the camp of the children of Dan, which was the rear guard of all the camps, set forward according to their armies. Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai was over his army. Pagiel the son of Ochran was over the army of the tribe of the children of Asher. Ahira the son of Enan was over the army of the tribe of the children of Naphtali. Thus were the travels of the children of Israel according to their armies; and they went forward.
Moses said to Hobab, the son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses’ father-in-law, “We are journeying to the place of which Yahweh said, ‘I will give it to you.’ Come with us, and we will treat you well; for Yahweh has spoken good concerning Israel.”
He said to him, “I will not go; but I will depart to my own land, and to my relatives.”
Moses said, “Don’t leave us, please; because you know how we are to encamp in the wilderness, and you can be our eyes. It shall be, if you go with us—yes, it shall be—that whatever good Yahweh does to us, we will do the same to you.”
They set forward from the Mount of Yahweh three days’ journey. The ark of Yahweh’s covenant went before them three days’ journey, to seek out a resting place for them. The cloud of Yahweh was over them by day, when they set forward from the camp. When the ark went forward, Moses said, “Rise up, Yahweh, and let your enemies be scattered! Let those who hate you flee before you!” When it rested, he said, “Return, Yahweh, to the ten thousands of the thousands of Israel.”
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv12, 13, 17, 21, 25, 28, 29, 31, 33, 35, 36 Or, in keeping this order in their journeys.
Or, in keeping this order in their journeys.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv12, 25, 29, 30, 31, 33, 35 Num 10:12 And the children of Israel took their…
Num 10:12 And the children of Israel took their journeys out of the wilderness of Sinai; and the cloud rested in the wilderness of Paran.
Ver. 12. Out of the wilderness of Sinai.] Where they had dwelt long enough. {Deu 1:6-8} It being a place of bondage, by reason of the law there given. {Gal 4:24-25} The law is a yoke of bondage, as Jerome calls it; and they who look for righteousness from thence, are like oxen, who toil and draw, and when they have done their labour, are fatted for slaughter.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv12, 21, 29, 30, 31, 33, 34, 36 From which they travelled to other places, and then…
From which they travelled to other places, and then returned into it again, Num 12:16.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv11, 29 Here is, I. A general account of the removal…
Here is, I. A general account of the removal of the camp of Israel from mount Sinai, before which mountain it had lain now about a year, in which time and place a great deal of memorable business was done. Of this removal, it should seem, God gave them notice some time before (Deu 1:6, Deu 1:7): You have dwelt long enough in this mountain, turn you and take your journey towards the land of promise. The apostle tells us that mount Sinai genders to bondage (Gal 4:24), and signifies the law there given, which is of use indeed as a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, yet we must not rest in it, but advance towards the joys and liberties of the children of God, for our happiness is conferred not by the law, but by promise. Observe, 1. The signal given (Num 10:11): The cloud was taken up, and we may suppose it stood for some time, till they were ready to march; and a great deal of work it was to take down all those tents, and pack up all those goods that they had there; but every family being employed about its own, and all at the same time, many hands made quick work of it. 2. The march began: They took their journey according to the commandment of the Lord, and just as the cloud led them, Num 10:13. Some think that mention is thus frequently made in this and the foregoing chapter of the commandment of the Lord, guiding and governing them in all their travels, to obviate the calumny and reproach which were afterwards thrown upon Israel, that they tarried so long in the wilderness, because they had lost themselves there, and could not find the way out. No, the matter was not so; in every stage, in every step, they were under divine direction; and, if they knew not where they were, yet he that led them knew. Note, Those that have given up themselves to the direction of God's word and Spirit steer a steady course, even when they seem to be bewildered. While they are sure they cannot lose their God and guide, they need not fear losing their way. 3. The place they rested in, after three days' march: They went out of the wilderness of Sinai, and rested in the wilderness of Paran. Note, All our removals in this world are but from one wilderness to another. The changes which we think will be for the better do not always prove so; while we carry about with us, wherever we go, the common infirmities of human nature, we must expect, wherever we go, to meet with its common calamities; we shall never be at rest, never at home, till we come to heaven, and all will be well there.
II. A particular draught of the order of their march, according to the late model. 1. Judah's squadron marched first, Num 10:14-16. The leading standard, now lodged with that tribe, was an earnest of the sceptre which in David's time should be committed to it, and looked further to the captain of our salvation, of whom it was likewise foretold that unto him should the gathering of the people be. 2. Then came those two families of the Levites which were entrusted to carry the tabernacle. As soon as ever the cloud was taken up, the tabernacle was taken down, and packed up for removing, Num 10:17. And here the six wagons came laden with the more bulky part of the tabernacle. This frequent removing of the tabernacle in all their journeys signified the movableness of that ceremonial dispensation. That which was so often shifted would at length vanish away, Heb 8:13. 3. Reuben's squadron marched forward next, taking place after Judah, according to the commandment of the Lord, Num 10:18-20. 4. Then the Kohathites followed with their charge, the sacred furniture of the tabernacle, in the midst of the camp, the safest and most honourable place, Num 10:21. And they (that is, says the margin, the Gershonites and Merarites) did set up the tabernacle against they came; and perhaps it is expressed thus generally because, if there was occasion, not those Levites only, but the other Israelites that were in the first squadron, lent a hand to the tabernacle to hasten the rearing of it up, even before they set up their own tents. 5. Ephraim's squadron followed next after the ark (Num 10:22-24), to which some think the psalmist alludes when he prays (Psa 80:2), Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, the three tribes that composed this squadron, stir up thy strength (and the ark is called his strength, Psa 78:61), and come and save us. 6. Dan's squadron followed last, Num 10:25-27. It is called the rearward, or gathering host, of all the camps, because it gathered up all that were left behind; not the women and children (these we may suppose were taken care of by the heads of their families in their respective tribes), but all the unclean, the mixed multitude, and all that were weak and feeble, and cast behind in their march. Note, He that leadeth Joseph like a flock has a tender regard to the hindmost (Eze 34:16), that cannot keep pace with the rest, and of all that are given him he will lose none, Joh 17:11.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv11–32 And it came to pass, on the twentieth day…
And it came to pass, on the twentieth day of the second month, in the second year,.... Which was the twentieth of the month Ijar, in the second year of the coming of the Israelites out of Egypt; who, as it appears from hence, compared with Exo 19:1; had been in the wilderness of Sinai twelve months wanting ten days; so Jarchi and other Jewish writers (m), with whom Aben Ezra agrees, who says it was near a year:
that the cloud was taken up from off the tabernacle of the testimony; that part of the tabernacle where the ark of the testimony stood, even the most holy place, over which the cloud was, the token of the divine Presence, and which it covered; but now was taken up from it, and went up higher above it, and was a signal for the motion of the camps of Israel to set forward in their journey towards Canaan's land.
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(m) Seder Olam Rabba, c. 8. p. 23. Abarbinel, &c.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv12, 21, 29, 30, 31, 33, 34, 36 Paran - From which they travelled to other places,…
Paran - From which they travelled to other places, and then returned into it again, chap. xii, 16.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv11, 12, 14, 29, 30, 31, 33, 35, 36 Verse 11. The twentieth day of the second month]…
Verse 11. The twentieth day of the second month] The Israelites had lain encamped in the wilderness of Sinai about eleven months and twenty days; compare Ex 19:1 with this verse. They now received the order of God to decamp, and proceed towards the promised land; and therefore the Samaritan introduces at this place the words which we find in De 1:6-8: "The Lord our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying: Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount, turn and take your journey," &c.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv12, 21, 29, 30, 31, 33, 34, 36 Num 10:12. Paran — From which they travelled to…
Num 10:12. Paran — From which they travelled to other places, and then returned into it again, Num 12:16.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 29, 31, 33, 35 At this point commences the second great division of…
At this point commences the second great division of the book, extending to the close of Num. 14. The remaining verses of the present chapter narrate the actual break up of the camp at Sinai and the order of the march.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv11, 17, 21, 23, 29, 31, 33, 36 The second. The Samaritan copy here places what we…
The second. The Samaritan copy here places what we read, Deuteronomy i. 7, 8; and it is certain that those words were addressed to Moses on this occasion, though it be not so certain that they were written by him in this place. (Calmet) --- Of the month Jiar. The Hebrews had continued near Sinai a year and 20 days. Thence they went to the desert of Pharan, encamping first at the sepulchres of concupiscence, and at Haseroth, which were probably in that desert. Moses only specifies those encampments, where something memorable took place. He mentions none between Asiongaber and Cades, thought the length of the journey required many, Numbers xi. 34., and xiii. 1. (Calmet) --- Perhaps he only reckons those among the stations where the people continued a considerable time.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv11, 12, 13, 29, 31, 32, 33, 35 It came to pass on the twentieth day of…
It came to pass on the twentieth day of the second month, in the second year, &c.--The Israelites had lain encamped in Wady-Er-Rahah and the neighboring valleys of the Sinaitic range for the space of eleven months and twenty-nine days. (Compare Exo 19:1). Besides the religious purposes of the highest importance to which their long sojourn at Sinai was subservient, the Israelites, after the hardships and oppression of the Egyptian servitude, required an interval of repose and refreshment. They were neither physically nor morally in a condition to enter the lists with the warlike people they had to encounter before obtaining possession of Canaan. But the wondrous transactions at Sinai--the arm of Jehovah so visibly displayed in their favor--the covenant entered into, and the special blessings guaranteed, beginning a course of moral and religious education which moulded the character of this people--made them acquainted with their high destiny and inspired them with those noble principles of divine truth and righteousness which alone make a great nation.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv11, 12, 14, 17, 25, 29, 31, 33, 34, 35 Numbers 10, 11-14. — [Time, about three months.]
THE MARCH.
Numbers 10, 11-14. — [Time, about three months.]
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THE BEGINNING OF THE MARCH FROM SINAI, Num_10:11-28.
The Samaritan MS. introduces in this place nearly the words of Deu_1:6-8, “Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount; turn and take your journey,” etc. The purpose of the Sinaitic sojourn had been accomplished. The decalogue had been given, the tabernacle built, the sacrificial system perfected, the priesthood established in the family of Aaron, the tribe of Levi substituted for the firstborn as the custodians of the tabernacle, Israel had been numbered and marshalled into an orderly encampment under appropriate banners, and the silver trumpets by which signals could be given had been made. All things were ready for the cloud to arise and move majestically northward toward the land of promise, about 175 miles distant. The immediate destination of Israel was “the wilderness of Paran,” a name long known. Gen_14:6; Gen_21:21. It is still called the “Desert of the Wandering.” It is a limestone plateau of irregular surface, hard, and covered in many places with a carpet of small flints so worn and polished as to resemble black glass. In the spring there is a scanty herbage even here, while in the ravines there is always sufficient for camels, and some ground available for cultivation.
11. In the second year — By comparing Exo_19:1, it will be seen that the sojourn at Sinai had continued eleven months and twenty days.
The ability of that region to afford sustenance to so vast a concourse for so long a time has been doubted. Manna for man, and water for man and beast were supernaturally supplied. How about the pasturage? Says Prof. E.H. Palmer: “Although the general aspect of the country is one of sheer desolation and barrenness, it must not be supposed that there is no fertility there. There are no rivers, yet many a pleasant little rivulet fringed with verdure may be met with here and there, especially in the romantic glens of the granite district. At Wadies Nasb and Gharandel are perennial, though not continuous, streams and large tracts of vegetation. At that part of Wady Feiran where the valley contracts in breadth, and concentrates the moisture, we find the most considerable oasis in the peninsula, and behind the little seaport of Tor there exists a large and magnificent grove of date-palms.” The Sinai Survey Expedition found remaining to this day many gardens and olive-groves, some cultivated by the monks, and others left in neglect. They report that “even the barest and most stony hillside is seldom entirely destitute of vegetation.” It is probable that the country was more fertile in the time of the Exodus than it is now, since there are scriptural evidences of abundant rain during the passage of the Israelites found in Psa_68:7-9; Psa_77:17, where the allusion is evidently to Sinai. “There are abundant vestiges of large colonies of Egyptian miners, whose slag heaps and smelting furnaces are yet to be seen in many parts of the peninsula. These must have destroyed many miles of forest in order to procure fuel; nay, more, the children of Israel could not have passed through without consuming vast quantities of fuel too.” See Exo_15:22-27, introductory note.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv11, 12, 14, 17, 21, 29, 30, 31, 33, 34, 35 11. The date Isaiah 19 days later than that…
11. The date Isaiah 19 days later than that in Num_1:1; Num_1:10 months 19 days after the arrival at Sinai (cf. Exo_19:1; Exo_40:17).
the cloud was taken up] It had remained for one month and 19 days, and now was lifted as a signal for departure, as explained in Num_9:17-22.
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the tabernacle of the testimony] See on Num_1:50.
Num_10:11-34
The departure from Sinai
The section consists of two well-defined narratives: Num_10:11-28 (P ) and Num_10:29-33 (J ). The latter is obviously parallel to the former, and not a continuation of it; Moses’ request to Ḥobab was made immediately before the departure, Num_10:34 is P’s continuation of Num_10:28.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv11, 12, 17, 28, 29, 30, 31, 33, 35 (11) On the twentieth day of the second month.—It…
(11) On the twentieth day of the second month.—It appears from Exo_19:1 that the Israelites encamped before Mount Sinai in the third month of the preceding year, and, as is generally supposed, on the first day of the month. In this case the encampment at the foot of Mount Sinai had lasted eleven months and nineteen days. No day of the month, however, is specified in Exod. xix 1, and no certain reliance can be placed upon the Jewish tradition that the Law was delivered fifty days after the Exodus. There is the same omission of the day of the month in Num_9:1; Num_20:1.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 21, 25, 28, 29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36 THE ORDER OF MARCH FROM SINAI (verses Num_9:11) As…
THE ORDER OF MARCH FROM SINAI (verses Num_9:11) As this march was, next to the actual exodus, the great trial of Israel"s faith and obedience, it was most important that none should commence it otherwise than in full communion with their God and with one another. The cloud was taken up. For the first time since the tabernacle had been reared up. (Exo_40:34) This being the Divine signal for departure, the silver trumpets would immediately announce the fact to all the hosts.
Vers. 11-28. The journey home.
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Spiritually, we have in this section the Divinely-appointed order of the Church of Cod, the ideal method of her journeying, towards the eternal rest. All the time which the children of Israel spent beneath the holy mount was to prepare them for a speedy and triumphant march by the shortest way into Canaan. All which we have learnt of the law of Christ, and in his school, is to fit us to make our way right onwards through the difficulties of this troublesome world to the home beyond; and this is the practical test of all we have acquired. Consider, therefore
I THAT THE IMMEDIATE MARCH OF ISRAEL WAS OUT OF THE "WILDERNESS OF SINAI" INTO THE "WILDERNESS OF PARAN," FROM ONE DESERT TO ANOTHER. Even so is the onward course of the Church, or of the faithful soul, in this world. The only change is from one set of difficulties and hardships to another, from an unrest of one kind to an unrest of another kind. After the green level of Egypt, Sinai was awful, but Paran was worse. To the natural mind the difficulties which surround the beginning of a Christian life are terrible, but those which beset its middle course are mostly harder, because drearier, even if less striking. The young always think that when the special temptations of youth are past it will be an easy and simple matter to walk uprightly. In truth the whole of this life is a desert-journey, and we only remove from the awful precipices of Sinai to encounter the rugged and barren expanse of Paran. The hope which cheers and sustains lies beyond. (Mat_10:22 Jam_1:12)
II THAT THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, AS SOON AS THE CLOUD REMOVED, COULD NOT STAY WHERE THEY WERE, BUT MUST SET FORTH THROUGH THE RUGGED WILDERNESS OF PARAN, IF THEY WERE EVER TO REACH CANAAN. Even so the Church cannot attain her rest by studying divinity or perfecting the definitions of morality or the appliances of worship; it must walk in faith and righteousness amidst the endless contradictions of time. Even Mary cannot always sit at the Master"s feet; the hour will come when he will be taken away, and when she must follow in the hard way of practical goodness and self-denial, if she would see him again.
III THAT THE MARCHING ORDERS GIVEN BY GOD TO ISRAEL SEEM ON THE FACE OF THEM TO BE INCONSISTENT WITH THE ENORMOUS NUMBER OF THE PEOPLE ON THE ONE HAND, AND THE EXTREME DIFFICULTY OF THE COUNTRY ON THE OTHER; there seems no room left for any physical incapacity, or for the least human failure. And these orders were in fact more or less departed from before long. The Divine ideal of the Christian life, whether as lived by the Church at large or by the individual soul, as drawn out in the New Testament, seems to be too high and too perfect to be possible in the face of the contradictions of the world and the perversities of human nature. It is apparently true that the infinite complications of modern life, and the infinite variety of human dispositions, have made the lofty purity and the unbroken unity of the gospel plan a thing practically unattainable in the Church.
IV That the appointed ORDER OF MARCH WAS NOT IN FACT OBSERVED IN ITS ENTIRETY EXCEPT AT THE VERY FIRST, because sin and rebellion altered the face of things and made it impossible. The holy picture of the Christian community, drawn in Scripture, was only realized in the earliest days, and was soon made obsolete in many points by sin and unbelief.
V That in spite of all apparent difficulties THE MARCH TO CANAAN WOULD HAVE BEEN ACCOMPLISHED WITHOUT A CHECK, without a loss, IF ONLY THE PEOPLE HAD OBEYED THE DIVINE COMMANDS, and relied upon the supernatural aid extended to them. Had Christians remained faithful, and responded to the heavenly graces promised to them, the Church would have gone on as it began, in spite of all difficulties; the whole earth had been evangelized, the number of the elect accomplished, and the heavenly rest attained long (it may be) ere this.
VI THAT THE GREAT SECRET, HUMANLY SPEAKING, OF THE ONWARD PROGRESS OF THE HOST WAS ORDER, in that every single person had his place and his work, and knew it. Without order carefully maintained that multitude had become an unmanageable mob, which could not have moved a mile or lived a day. Humanly speaking, order, discipline, due subordination, allotted division of labour, is the secret of the Church"s success; and the absence still more the contempt of such order, is the obvious cause of the Church"s failure.
VII THAT THE GREAT SECRET, DIVINELY SPEAKING, OF ISRAEL"S SAFETY AND PROGRESS WAS THE FACT THAT THE LORD HIMSELF WAS IN THEIR MIDST when they rested, at their head when they marched, by the ark and by the cloud. In the deepest and truest sense the secret of our safety and of our victory is the supernatural presence of God with the Church and in the soul, by his incarnate Word and by his Spirit. There is at once the real bond of union, and the real source of strength. It may also be noted
1. That, as soon as their time of preparation was fulfilled, the cloud led Israel into the wilderness of Paran, to be tried by the manifold temptations of that way. Even so, when the preparation of Jesus for his work was finished, he was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. Israel, called out of Egypt, was a type of Christ, (Mat_2:15) and the cloud was the symbol of the Divine Spirit.
2. That the fabric of the tabernacle was sent on in order to be set up in readiness to receive the ark and sacred vessels when they arrived. It is not always an idle nor a useless thing to set up the external formalities of religion in advance of the true spirit of worship, in faithful expectation that this too will come, and with it the promised blessing of God.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv11, 14, 29, 35 Took their Journeys out of the wilderness.
Num_10:11-13
Took their Journeys out of the wilderness.
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Israels journey through the wilderness an emblem of the Christians state on earth
While we are in this world we are passing through a wilderness, and our removes in it are only from one wilderness to another. The men of this world will dislike the comparison because the world is their portion, their all. But those whose chief business and governing desire is to get to heaven, and who have their conversation there, will acknowledge the emblem to be just, will dwell on it with pleasure, and derive instruction from it. This world is like a wilderness, as--
1. It is an uncomfortable state.
2. It is a dangerous state: dangerous to the Christians virtue and peace, to the life and health of his soul, which are the main things that he regards and pursues.
3. It is an unsettled state, subject to continual changes and alterations. We enter on new relations in life, and promise ourselves much from them, but still it is a wilderness: if we have new pleasures we have new cares and sorrows, and if we double our joys we double our griefs too. In every stage of the wilderness we leave some of our friends behind us, the prey of the universal destroyer death, and we find the rest of the journey more tiresome and dangerous for want of their assistance and company. Some are confined long in the wilderness, beyond the usual period of human life. Sometimes they think themselves near the country for which they are bound, and then, like Israel, they are turned back again, and have many more years to wander. Their burdens grow heavier and their pleasures less, and nothing in the wilderness can support them; nothing but religion and the hope of getting to Canaan at last.
Application:
1. Let us be thankful that we have so many comforts in the wilderness.
2. Let us be patient and contented under the evils of it. And for this plain reason, because it is sin that hath turned the world into a wilderness.
3. Lot us earnestly seek and hope for the presence of God with us in this wilderness, and that will be everything to us.
4. Let us rejoice in the views of the heavenly Canaan, and diligently prepare for it. (J. Orton.)
The cloud rested.--
The resting and the rising of the good
I. The people of God are sometimes called to remain, as it were, stationary for a time in this life.
II. Though the people of God may appear to remain stationary for a time, yet there is no permanent settlement in this world.
III. Both the restings and the risings of the people of God are ordered by him.
IV. The people of God, whether resting or marching, are protected by him. Learn, in conclusion, to--
1. Gratefully appreciate and diligently use the seasons of quiet rest in life.
2. Remember that, however long and grateful a rest may be granted unto us, we are only pilgrims here. Be ready to arise and depart when the cloud arises.
3. Follow the guidance of God.
4. Trust the protection of God. (W. Jones.)
Rest a while
Rest a while! Why, it is a mothers word; she says to her little weary child who has toddled itself out of breath, Rest a while. It is the word of a great, generous, noble-hearted leader of men. He says, My company must have rest. I know I am sent to gain victories and to work great programmes; but in the meantime my over-worked men must have rest. It is a gentle word. Where do you find such gentleness as you find in Jesus Christ? (J. Parker, D. D.)
Rest time not waste time:
It is economy to gather fresh strength. Look at the mower on the summers day, with so much to cut down ere the sun sets. He pauses in his labour--is he a sluggard? He looks for his stone, and begins to draw it up and down his scythe with rink-a-tink, rink-a-tink, rink-a-tink--is that idle music? Is he wasting precious moments? How much he might have mown while he has been ringing out those notes on his scythe! But he is sharpening his tool, and he will do far more when once again he gives his strength to those long sweeps which lay the grass prostrate in rows before him. Even thus a little pause prepares the mind for greater service in the good cause. Fishermen must mend their nets, and we must every now and then repair our mental waste and set our machinery in order for future service. To tug the oar from day to day, like a galley-slave who knows no holidays, suits not mortal men. Mill-streams go on and on for ever, but we must have our pauses and our intervals. Who can help being out of breath when the race is continued without intermission? Even beasts of burden must be turned out to grass occasionally; the very sea pauses at ebb and flow; earth keeps the Sabbath of the wintry months; and man, even when exalted to be Gods ambassador, must rest or faint; must trim his lamp or let it burn low; must recruit his vigour or grow prematurely old. It is wisdom to take occasional furlough. In the long run we shall do more by sometimes doing less. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v29 THE Kenites, an Arab tribe belonging to the region…
HOBAB THE KENITE
Num_10:29-36
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THE Kenites, an Arab tribe belonging to the region of Midian, and sometimes called Midianites, sometimes Amalekites, were already in close and friendly relation with Israel. Moses, when he went first to Midian, had married a daughter of their chief Jethro, and, as we learn from Exodus 18, this patriarch, with his daughter Zipporah and the two sons she had borne to Moses, came to the camp of Israel at the mount of God. The meeting was an occasion of great rejoicing; and Jethro, as priest of his tribe, having congratulated the Hebrews on the deliverance Jehovah had wrought for them, "took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God," and was joined by Moses, Aaron, and all the elders of Israel in the sacrificial feast. A union was thus established between Kenites and Israelites of the most solemn and binding kind. The peoples were sworn to continual friendship.
While Jethro remained in the camp his counsel was given in regard to the manner of administering justice. In accordance with it rulers of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens were chosen, "able men, such as feared God, men of truth, hating covetousness"; and to them matters of minor importance were referred for judgment, the hard causes only being brought before Moses. The sagacity of one long experienced in the details of government came in to supplement the intellectual power and the inspiration of the Hebrew leader.
It does not appear that any attempt was made to attach Jethro and the whole of his tribe to the fortunes of Israel. The small company of the Kenites could travel far more swiftly than a great host, and, if they desired, could easily overtake the march. Moses, we are told, let his father-in-law depart, and he went to his own place. But now that the long stay of the Israelites at Sinai is over and they are about to advance to Canaan, the visit of a portion of the Kenite tribe is made the occasion of an appeal to their leader to cast in his lot with the people of God. There is some confusion in regard to the relationship of Hobab with Jethro or Raguel. Whether Hobab was a son or grandson of the chief cannot be made out. The word translated father-in-law (Num_10:29), means a relation by marriage. Whatever was the tie between Hobab and Moses, it was at all events so close, and the Kenite had so much sympathy with Israel, that it was natural to make the appeal to him: "Come thou with us, and we will do thee good." Himself assured of the result of the enterprise, anticipating with enthusiasm the high destiny of the tribes of Israel, Moses endeavours to persuade these children of the desert to take the way to Canaan.
There was a fascination in the movement of that people who, rescued from bondage by their Heavenly Friend, were on their journey to the land of His promise. This fascination Hobab and his followers appear to have felt; and Moses counted upon it. The Kenites, used to the wandering life, accustomed to strike their tents any day as occasion required, no doubt recoiled from the thought of settling even in a fertile country, still more from dwelling in any walled town. But the south of Canaan was practically a wilderness, and there, keeping to a great extent their ancestral habits, they might have had the liberty they loved, yet kept in touch with their friends of Israel. Some aversion from the Hebrews, who still bore certain marks of slavery, would have to be overcome. Yet, with the bond already established, there needed only some understanding of the law of Jehovah, and some hope in His promise to bring the company of Hobab to decision.
And Moses had right in saying, "Come with us, and we will do thee good; for Jehovah hath spoken good concerning Israel." The outlook to a future was something which the Kenites as a people had not, never could have in their desultory life. Unprogressive, out of the way of the great movements of humanity, gaining nothing as generations went by, but simply reproducing the habits and treasuring the beliefs of their fathers, the Arab tribe might maintain itself, might occasionally strike for righteousness in some conflict, but otherwise had no prospect, could have no enthusiasm. They would live their hard life, they would enjoy freedom, they would die - such would be their history. Compared with that poor outlook, howgood it would be to share the noble task of establishing on the soil of Canaan a nation devoted to truth and righteousness, in league with the living God, destined to extend His kingdom and make His faith the means of blessing to all. It was the great opportunity of these nomads. As yet, indeed, there was no courage of religion, no brightness of enthusiasm among the Israelites. But there was the ark of the covenant, there were the sacrifices, the law; and Jehovah Himself, always present with His people, was revealing His will and His glory by oracle, by discipline and deliverance.
Now these Kenites may be taken as representing a class, in the present day to a certain extent attracted, even fascinated, by the Church, who standing irresolute are appealed to in terms like those addressed by Moses to Hobab. They feel a certain charm, for in the wide organisation and vast activity of the Christian Church, quite apart from the creed on which it is based, there are signs of vigour and purpose which contrast favourably with endeavours directed to mere material gain. In idea and in much of its effort the Church is splendidly humane, and it provides interests, enjoyments, both of an intellectual and artistic kind, in which all can share. Not so much its universality nor its mission of converting the world, nor its spiritual worship, but rather the social advantages and the culture it offers draw towards it those minds and lives. And to them it extends, too often without avail, the invitation to join its march.
Is it asked why many, partly fascinated, remain proof against its appeals? why an increasing number prefer, like Hobab, the liberty of the desert, their own unattached, desultory, hopeless way of life? The answer must partly be that, as it is, the Church does not fully commend itself by its temper, its enthusiasm, its sincerity and Christianity. It attracts but is unable to command, because with all its culture of art it does not appear beautiful, with all its claims of spirituality it is not unworldly; because, professing to exist for the redemption of society, its methods and standards are too often human rather than Divine. It is not that the outsider shrinks from the religiousness of the Church as overdone; rather does he detect a lack of that very quality. He could believe in the Divine calling and join the enterprise of the Church if he saw it journeying steadily towards a better country, that is a heavenly. Its earnestness would then command him; faith would compel faith. But social status and temporal aims are not subordinated by the members of the Church, nor even by its leaders. And whatever is done in the way of providing attractions for the pleasure-loving, and schemes of a social kind, these, so far from gaining the undecided, rather make them less disposed to believe. More exciting enjoyments can be found elsewhere. The Church offering pleasures and social reconstruction is attempting to catch those outside by what, from their point of view, must appear to be chaff.
It is a question which every body of Christians has need to ask itself-Can we honestly say to those without, Come with us, and we will do you good? In order that there may be certainty on this point, should not every member of the Church be able to testify that the faith he has gives joy and peace, that his fellowship with God is making life pure and strong and free? Should there not be a clear movement of the whole body, year by year, towards finer spirituality, broader and more generous love? The gates of membership are in some cases opened to such only as make very clear and ample profession. It does not, however, appear that those already within have always the Christian spirit corresponding to that high profession. And yet as Moses could invite Hobab and his company without misgiving because Jehovah was the Friend and Guide of Israel and had spoken good concerning her, so because Christ is the Head of the Church, and Captain of her salvation, those outside may well be urged to join her fellowship. If all depended on the earnestness of our faith and the steadfastness of our virtue we should not dare to invite others to join the march. But it is with Christ we ask them to unite. Imperfect in many ways, the Church is His, exists to show His death, to proclaim His Gospel and extend His power. In the whole range of human knowledge and experience there is but one life that is free, pure, hopeful, energetic in every noble sense, and at the same time calm. In the whole range of human existence there is but one region in which the mind and the soul find satisfaction and enlargement, in which men of all sorts and conditions find true harmony. That life and that region of existence are revealed by Christ; into them He only is the Way. The Church, maintaining this, demonstrating this, is to invite all who stand aloof. They who join Christ and follow Him will come to a good land, a heavenly heritage.
The first invitation given to Hobab was set aside. "Nay," he said, "I will not go; but I will depart to my own land and to my kindred." The old ties of country and people were strong for him. The true Arab loves his country passionately. The desert is his home, the mountains are his friends. His hard life is a life of liberty. He is strongly attached to his tribe, which has its own traditions, its own glories. There have been feuds, the memory of which must be cherished. There are heirlooms that give dignity to those who possess them. The people of the clan are brothers and sisters. Very little of the commercial mingles with the life of the desert; so perhaps family feeling has the more power. These influences Hobab felt, and this besides deterred him, that if he joined the Israelites he would be under the command of Moses. Hobab was prospective head of his tribe, already in partial authority at least. To obey the word of command instead of giving it was a thing he could not brook. No doubt the leader of Israel had proved himself brave, resolute, wise. He was a man of ardent soul and fitted for royal power. But Hobab preferred the chieftainship of his own small clan to service under Moses; and, brought to the point of deciding, he would not agree.
Freedom, habit, the hopes that have become part of life-these in like manner interpose between many and a call which is known to be from God. There is restraint within the circle of faith; old ideas, traditional conceptions of life, and many personal ambitions have to be relinquished by those who enter it. Accustomed to that Midian where every man does according to the bent of his own will, where life is hard but uncontrolled, where all they have learned to care for and desire may be found, many are unwilling to choose the way of religion, subjection to the law of Christ, the life of spiritual conflict and trial, however much may be gained at once and in the eternal future. Yet the liberty of their Midian is illusory. It is simply freedom to spend strength in vain, to roam from place to place where all alike are barren, to climb mountains lightning-riven, swept by interminable storms. And the true liberty is with Christ, who opens the prospect of the soul, and redeems the life from evil, vanity, and fear. The heavenward march appears to involve privation and conflict, which men do not care to face. But is the worldly life free from enemies, hardships, disappointments? The choice is, for many, between a bare life over which death triumphs, and a life moving on over obstacles, through tribulations, to victory and glory. The attractions of land and people, set against those of Christian hope, have no claim. "Every one," says the Lord, "that hath left houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or children, or lands, for My sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall inherit eternal life."
Passing on, the narrative informs us that Moses used another plea: "Leave us not, I pray thee; forasmuch as thou knowest how we are to encamp in the wilderness, and thou shalt be to us instead of eyes." Hobab did not respond to the promise of advantage to himself; he might be moved by the hope of being useful. Knowing that he had to deal with a man who was proud, and in his way magnanimous, Moses wisely used this appeal. And he used it frankly, without pretence. Hobab might do real and valuable service to the tribes on their march to Canaan. Accustomed to the desert, over which he had often travelled, acquainted with the best methods of disposing a camp in any given position, with the quick eye and habit of observation which the Arab life gives, Hobab would be the very adjutant to whom Moses might commit many details. If he joins the tribes on this footing it will be without pretence. He professes no greater faith either in Israels destiny or in Jehovahs sole Godhead than he really feels. Wishing Israel well, interested in the great experiment, yet not bound up in it, he may give his counsel and service heartily so far as they avail.
We are here introduced to another phase of the relation between the Church and those who do not altogether accept its creed, or acknowledge its mission to be supernatural, Divine. Confessing unwillingness to receive the Christian system as a whole, perhaps openly expressing doubts of the miraculous, for example, many in our day have still so much sympathy with the ethics and culture of Christianity that they would willingly associate themselves with the Church, and render it all the service in their power. Their tastes have led them to subjects of study and modes of self-development not in the proper sense religious. Some are scientific, some have literary talent, some artistic, some financial. The question may be, whether the Church should invite these to join her ranks in any capacity, whether room may be made for them, tasks assigned to them. On the one hand, would it be dangerous to Christian faith? on the other hand, would it involve them in self-deception? Let it be assumed that they are men of honour and integrity, men who aim at a high moral standard and have some belief in the spiritual dignity man may attain. On this footing may their help be sought and cordially accepted by the Church?
We cannot say that the example of Moses should be taken as a rule for Christians. It was one thing to invite the co-operation with Israel for a certain specified purpose of an Arab chief who differed somewhat in respect of faith; it would be quite another thing to invite one whose faith, if he has any, is only a vague theism, to give his support to Christianity. Yet the cases are so far parallel that the one illustrates the other. And one point appears to be this, that the Church may show itself at least as sympathetic as Israel. Is there but a single note of unison between a soul and Christianity? Let that be recognised, struck again and again till it is clearly heard. Our Lord rewarded the faith of a Syrophoenician woman, of a Roman centurion. His religion cannot be injured by generosity. Attachment to Himself personally, disposition to hear His words and accept His morality, should be hailed as the possible dawn of faith, not frowned upon as a splendid sin. Every one who helps sound knowledge helps the Church. The enthusiast for true liberty has a point of contact with Him whose truth gives freedom. The Church is a spiritual city with gates that stand wide open day and night towards every region and condition of human life, towards the north and south, the east and west. If the wealthy are disposed to help, let them bring their treasures; if the learned devote themselves reverently and patiently to her literature, let their toil be acknowledged. Science has a tribute that should be highly valued, for it is gathered from the works of God; and art of every kind-of the poet, the musician, the sculptor, the painter-may assist the cause of Divine religion. The powers men have are given by Him who claims all as His own. The vision of Isaiah in which he saw Tarshish and the isles, Sheba and Seba offering gifts to the temple of God did not assume that the tribute was in all cases that of covenant love. And the Church of Christ has broader human sympathy and better right to the service of the world than Isaiah knew. For the Churchs good, and for the good of those who may be willing in any way to aid her work and development, all gifts should be gladly received, and those who stand hesitating should be invited to serve.
But the analogy of the invitation to Hobab involves another point which must always be kept in view. It is this, that the Church is not to slacken her march, not divert her march in any degree because men not fully in sympathy with her join the company and contribute their service. The Kenite may cast in his lot with the Israelites and aid them with his experience. But Moses will not cease to lead the tribes towards Canaan, will not delay their progress a single day for Hobabs sake. Nor will he less earnestly claim sole Godhead for Jehovah, and insist that every sacrifice shall be made to Him and every life kept holy in His way, for His service. Perhaps the Kenite faith differed little in its elements from that which the Israelites inherited. It may have been monotheistic; and we know that part of the worship was by way of sacrifice not unlike that appointed by the Mosaic law. But it had neither the wide ethical basis nor the spiritual aim and intensity which Moses had been the means of imparting to Israels religion. And from the ideas revealed to him and embodied in the moral and ceremonial law he could not for the sake of Hobab resile in the least. There should be no adjustment of creed or ritual to meet the views of the new ally. Onward to Canaan, onward also along the lines of religious duty and development, the tribes would hold their way as before.
In modern alliances with the Church a danger is involved, sufficiently apparent to all who regard the state of religion. History is full of instances in which, to one company of helpers and another, too much has been conceded; and the march of spiritual Christianity is still greatly impeded by the same thing. Money contributed, by whomsoever, is held to give the donors a right to take their place in councils of the Church, or at least to sway decision now in one direction, now in another. Prestige is offered with the tacit understanding that it shall be repaid with deference. The artist uses his skill, but not in subordination to the ideas of spiritual religion. He assumes the right to give them his own colour, and may even, while professing to serve Christianity, sensualise its teaching. Scholarship offers help, but is not content to submit to Christ. Having been allowed to join itself with the Church, it proceeds, not infrequently, to play the traitors part, assailing the faith it was invoked to serve. Those who care more for pleasure than for religion may within a certain range find gratification in Christian worship; they are apt to claim more and still more of the element that meets their taste. And those who are bent on social reconstruction would often, without any thought of doing wrong, divert the Church entirely from its spiritual mission. When all these influences are taken into account, it will be seen that Christianity has to go its way amid perils. It must not be unsympathetic. But those to whom its camp is opened, instead of helping the advance, may neutralise the whole enterprise.
Every Church has great need at present to consider whether that clear spiritual aim which ought to be the constant guide is not forgotten, at least occasionally, for the sake of this or that alliance supposed to be advantageous. It is difficult to find the mean, difficult to say who serve the Church, who hinder its success. More difficult still is it to distinguish those who are heartily with Christianity from those who are only so in appearance, having some nostrum of their own to promote. Hobab may decide to go with Israel; but the invitation he accepts, perhaps with an air of superiority, of one conferring a favour, is really extended to him for his good, for the saving of his life. Let there be no blowing of the silver trumpets to announce that a prince of the Kenites henceforth journeys with Israel; they were not made for that! Let there be no flaunting of a gay ensign over his tent. We shall find that a day comes when the men who stand by true religion have-perhaps through Kenite influence-the whole congregation to face. So it is in Churches. On the other hand, Pharisaism is a great danger, equally tending to destroy the value of religion; and Providence ever mingles the elements that enter into the counsels of Christianity, challenging the highest wisdom, courage, and charity of the faithful.
The closing verses of Num_10:33-36, belonging, like the passage just considered, to the prophetic narrative, affirm that the ark was borne from Sinai three days journey before the host to find a halting-place. The reconciliation between this statement and the order which places the ark in the centre of the march, may be that the ideal plan was at the outset not observed, for some sufficient reason. The absolute sincerity of the compilers of the Book of Numbers is shown in their placing almost side by side the two statements without any attempt to harmonise. Both were found in the ancient documents, and both were set down in good faith. The scribes into whose hands the old records came did not assume the role of critics.
At the beginning of every march Moses is reported to have used the chant: "Rise up, O Jehovah, and let Thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate Thee flee before Thee." When the ark rested he said: "Return, O Jehovah, unto the ten thousands of the thousands of Israel." The former is the opening strain of Psalms 68, and its magnificent strophes move towards the idea of that rest which Israel finds in the protection of her God. Part of the ode returns upon the desert journey, adding some features and incidents, omitted in the narrations of the Pentateuch-such as the plentiful rain which refreshed the weary tribes, the publishing by women of some Divine oracle. But on the whole the psalm agrees with the history, making Sinai the scene of the great revelation of God, and indicating the guidance He gave through the wilderness by means of the cloudy pillar. The chants of Moses would be echoed by the people, and would help to maintain the sense of constant relation between the tribes and their unseen Defender.
Through the wilderness Israel went, not knowing from what quarter the sudden raid of a desert people might be made. Swiftly, silently, as if springing out of the very sand, the Arab raiders might bear down upon the travellers. They were assured of the guardianship of Him whose eye never slumbered, when they kept His way and held themselves at His command. Here the resemblance to our case in the journey of life is clear; and we are reminded of our need of defence and the only terms on which we may expect it. We may look for protection against those who are the enemies of God. But we have no warrant for assuming that on whatever errand we are bound we have but to invoke the Divine arm in order to be secure. The dreams of those who think their personal claim on God may always be urged have no countenance in the prayer, "Rise up, O Jehovah, and let Thine enemies be scattered." And as Israel settling to rest after some weary march could enjoy the sense of Jehovahs presence only if the duties of the day had been patiently done, and the thought of Gods will had made peace in every tribe, and His promise had given courage and hope-so for us, each day will close with the Divine benediction when we have "fought a good fight and kept the faith." Fidelity there must be; or, if it has failed, the deep repentance that subdues wandering desire and rebellious will, bringing the whole of life anew into the way of lowly service.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v11 Division 2. (Num 10:11-36; Num 11:1-35; Num 12:1-16; Num…
Division 2. (Num 10:11-36; Num 11:1-35; Num 12:1-16; Num 13:1-33; Num 14:1-45; Num 15:1-41; Num 16:1-35.)
Growing departure from God: the testimony of history as to the people.
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The camp thus ordered, the provision for the journey now complete, the journey itself begins, the true history of the wilderness, that from the Red Sea to Sinai being very different in character from what is now before us, and dwelt on for another purpose. There we have seen that what is brought out is the grace that meets the need of the wilderness, although this implies, of course, the need itself being manifested, and as grace, the spiritual need, the weakness and failure of the people. But now, while grace is still shown, and in result to be better than ever known, yet the point of view is different: it is now the people themselves with whom we are to be occupied; it is in the full sense their history; we are to see by the evidence of this, what they are with whom the Lord has charged Himself. And a terrible witness as to them the history is.
Not that we are to suppose them worse than other people. We should miss altogether the instruction designed for us, if we gathered such a thought. They are exceptional only in this, as being brought into nearer visible relation to God than any other, and that their history is given us, written with the unerring pen of inspiration. "For what nation is there so great," asks Moses, at a later time, "who have God so nigh unto them, as Jehovah our God is, in all things that we call upon Him for?" (Deu 4:7.) Alas! this that was their exceeding privilege, was that also which searched out to the very bottom all that was in their heart. "God is light;" and "that which doth make manifest is light." If there be not full self-judgment, and whole-hearted yielding of ourselves to Him, His presence the more realized will be the more intolerable; His rule will be the more, even to His face, rejected and thrown off. "Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods?" He asks Himself; "but My people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit." (Jer 2:11.) Does this prove as to Israel, as it might seem, that they were worse than the nations? Alas! no: had they had but false gods, they would not have changed them either! "This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world; and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." It is the light, as the light, which is necessarily rejected by those whose unchanged hearts desire the shelter of the darkness for their evil deeds. And though, of course, the power of God upon unconverted men, or the needs they have for which they seek His help, may bring individuals or even nations to yield Him homage, secretly or openly revolt again is sure to come. Israel’s history is in its principles indeed a pattern one; and herein lies for us its admonition.
"As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man;" -the heart, not of necessity the life: there are, as to the latter, many God-given restraints and hindrances which prevent its being just what the heart is. Evil too has many forms, some of which look very different from others, -nay, in a true sense, which are: in the day of judgment coming there will be, as we know, the strictest individualization: Godward, at bottom, there is no difference naturally.
We shall find, thus, Israel’s history here to be, in principle, the history of Christendom no less. So it is that Jude sees prophetically the end of false profession among Christians to be that they "perish in the gainsaying of Kore." Alas! not only so, but even when turned to God, there is still in us evil which, if we have eyes to see, we shall find here in its true character. The flesh is in us, and "the mind of the flesh is enmity against God." And in this, indeed, is the main profit of this history, if we are humble enough to learn ourselves from it: important in this above all, that thus it is we are able to learn God also in those ways of His which are divinely suitable to what we are.
This, then, is what the second division of the book of Numbers brings before us, the discovery of what the people are, as evidenced by their history, in which we find them, through several stages of declension, reaching at last the complete rejection of their divinely given leaders in the "gainsaying of Kore."
1. Upon the twentieth day of the second month of the second year, the cloud is taken up from the tabernacle, and they start. The equivocal 2 is prominent in the date of their departure, the number of responsibility, 10, alone being joined with it, making it more equivocal. Is it a path of fellowship with God (as the number might mean) upon which they are entering? or is it one which is to be marked by contradiction of His will, and conflict, -a terrible conflict that must of necessity be theirs who contend with God? In fact, the wilderness of Paran is as far as we look at present, and there the cloud abides: from wilderness to wilderness is the whole horizon yet, though as yet we see not plainly the obstacle to further vision, except as the number of responsibility may indicate it, and it surely does so sufficiently.
There may be, however, something more. If "Paran" is to have its natural meaning according to the Hebrew, it would mean, not "unclosing -opening," as Lange takes it, nor "abounding in caverns," as Simonis and others, but "adornment." From the wilderness of thorn (or barrenness) to the wilderness of decoration or adornment, (which would imply the exchange of barrenness for a place which, if a desert still, had become in the people’s mind in some way attractive,) -this might foreshadow what in fact took place when Israel, upon the very borders of the land to which God was bringing them, turned their backs upon it, and chose rather the desert than what God had made their own.
This may seem strained; and yet, alas! do not God’s people still decorate the desert instead of entering in by faith into that which is their own? This surely might give in the opening verses of this division the moral of the whole; and it would be quite after the manner of Scripture to do so. The satire that appears in it is but the satire of truth; and what is keener? Israel were, in one way, no lovers of the desert, out of which their hearts turned back so readily to Egypt, and the evils of which they could so bitterly lament. But Egypt was barred to them: to it they could not return; and their choice was in fact between Canaan and the desert. So too for the Christian: he cannot go back to Egypt -to what he was before conversion; he realizes in some sense what the world is, -cannot sink into it without many bitter realizations of this; and yet how often refuses to enter upon his land of promise, hugging the earth till death comes to turn him out of it: and this is what we see in the picture here.
Yet Israel start in good order, -at the commandment of the Lord, and His presence with them, every tribe filling its place. So the Church had its Pentecost, too brief, and never to return on earth; but only the faint image of what shall be, when He who is last Adam shall present her to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing."
(2) Yet at the very beginning there is a portent of the future, and the failure of him to whom the people have been committed. Here constantly failure begins, namely, with those in places of fullest responsibility, and upon whom, under God, all seems to depend. So Noah failed after the flood. And Scripture records these things that we may learn from them the needful lesson, that no man, be he who he may, can we trust implicitly. Leaders there must be, and confidence ought to be given them, but with the reservation always that we follow them as they follow Christ, -no farther. The sins of the most godly, the errors of the wisest, are in their consequences to be dreaded more than the greater follies and sins of lesser men; and the weak idolatry of those through whom God may have ministered to us largest blessing has been ever productive of the most disastrous results. "Esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake" is the Scripture rule, and "whose faith follow."
Israel were going forth under the guiding care of the Almighty. The first of all duties was that of implicit confidence in Him; yet Moses turns to a child of the wilderness, that, with the competence derived from natural acquirements, he may be to them "instead of eyes." Commentators explain this as quite consistent. Followers of the "higher criticism" admit the contradiction, and of course see in it a sign of contradictory documents, which, if we will allow them, they will settle with the scissors. In truth, there is a contradiction; but the fault is not in Scripture, but in man, who so easily forgets his resource in God. Here, too, it is easy to see influences that are at work in Moses’ natural link with the Midianite chief. Easy too it is to cover it with fair names, for "Hobab" means "lover," and he is the son of Reuel, "the friend of God." How often human piety and friendship come in as arguments with us in the wrong place! All this evidently illustrates the danger of which we were but just now speaking, in connection with "guides." Nay, the Midianite, as (according to his name) the "man of strife," may well remind us of the fierce controversialism of so many who assume this office. Controversy is often needed, but one characterized by a spirit of this sort is no fit leader for the people of God.
(3) Accordingly we never see Hobab in this place at all, and on the contrary, we have the divine comment on Moses’ request in the ark moving out of its place in the midst of the camp and taking it at their head: "And the ark of the covenant of Jehovah went before them in the three days’ journey, to search out a resting-place for them." Thus the Lord vindicates Himself from the reproach which the unbelief of His people has cast upon Him. He is the actual and only and all-sufficient Leader, the Shepherd of Israel, whose eyes are never weary, whose heart is never at fault, "who never slumbereth nor sleepeth."
How thoroughly He has identified Himself with the people is seen in the prayer which Moses, as taught of God, utters as the ark sets forward. The enemies that he anticipates are now but Jehovah’s enemies, and they scatter as He advances. And when it rests, and the cloud settles down once more, then His face is turned with satisfaction toward His own, who in that sheltering cloud-canopy recognize the brooding wings under which they may rest securely, and not a note even of alarm find how to penetrate.
2. (1) Yet it is here, and thus early upon their journey onward, that the spirit of the people begins to show itself. There has been no unusual occurrence. No enemy has appeared. No need has made itself felt. The promised land lies but a few days’ journey before them, and they are as yet fresh from their long halt at Sinai. It seems as if as yet they knew not themselves any cause for dissatisfaction. They murmur vaguely about "evil," to which they cannot give a name; yet already this murmuring is becoming chronic -begins to characterize them. Alas! there is a source of discontent within man’s heart which needs not circumstances to develop; and it is important that this should be manifest at the beginning. In a world like this, trials will arise; evils there will be, and many, which God’s Word never hides from us, but insists upon. The world is really a wilderness in God’s account, and should be so in ours. The longing after Egypt shows, not that we have judged too deeply, but not deeply enough. Yet, apart from circumstances altogether, there is enough within us to make heaven itself a weariness, if we could carry it there. This is the meaning of this brief account, in which that there are no circumstances to narrate, no external cause to induce these murmurings, is not only significant for this time, but in connection with all that follows. Here is the underground root of all, the innate apostasy of the heart from God. Circumstances may arise; man will catch at them, and make them his plea in self-justification against God; enmity of heart is fertile in pretexts: they are but pretexts; that is what "Taberah" plainly indicates.
God’s anger shows itself, and yet in a way that manifests its unwillingness to strike. A fire from Jehovah burns and consumes in the extremity of the camp: it does not appear that any of the people are consumed in it. The warning is mercy, yet of a judgment that, if it strikes, will be severe enough to testify of the holiness that acts in it. God may delay His judgment, but if it takes its course, righteousness must exact its due.
At Moses’ prayer it sinks, but its memory is rightly kept alive. The place is called "Taberah," which means such a burning as does its work. Needful it is, not to confound God’s grace or His long-suffering with mitigation of penalty: there was none on the cross, where the Son of God hung for us; there will be none wherever it is penalty that is exacted. Righteousness itself never requires more than it needs must.
These memorial-places in Israel’s pilgrimage, have they their representatives in our own history, appropriately marked, as were theirs? Well will it be for us if it is so. Only, for a child of God, penalty in its true sense there can be none, while chastening is his on that very account. "If ye call on Him as Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear."
(2) Their lesson, however, Israel has not learned, and in a short time indeed the murmuring breaks out again, this time taking definite shape, as against the manna, the daily witness of Jehovah’s daily care. Pathetically here, therefore, the inspired writer turns aside once more to describe the manna to us, and how it was continually ministered, falling on the camp as the dew fell, -type of the Spirit’s ministry of Christ; the taste, too, being that of fresh oil. Variously prepared, the people fed upon it, though now they were crying out for the food of Egypt, with characteristic fickleness forgetting the misery of their bondage there. This lusting begins, indeed, with that mixed multitude which, though it had come out of Egypt with them, had not known in the same way that bondage, nor, therefore, the reality of redemption either. Thus from the mixed multitude also, within it and not of it, the Church has learned the unhallowed cry after the things of the world. Christ, God’s only provision for His people, dries up the soul that feeds alone on Him! And true Christians also learn, in modified and more decorous language, to repeat this.
But does the desire for flesh represent the craving for the pleasures of the world? There are some things that lie against this. For the scene at the giving of the manna at first cannot but recur to us, as in some sense parallel to what is before us here. We have there the same desire for flesh, answered in the same way -by a flight of quails; and this not judgment, nor connected with it, but preparatory to the manna, and in fullest harmony, as we have seen, with it. There we accepted the thought that the quails spoke of Christ, in His life yielded up for men, which the evening-flight of the quail, well known as characteristic of the bird, strengthens. But if this be so, how can we interpret it in the present case differently? Must not these Scripture-types be consistent throughout if we are to have confidence in the meaning given to them, -especially, as here, where there seem to be such evident links of connection?
But then, again, if it be Christ of whom the quails speak, of abundant grace in which death ministers to life, may it not be that this even, in the hearts of mere worldly professors, becomes a plea for indulgence, grace in this way taken as laxity -as license? Thus the very death of Christ may be put in opposition to His life, -to the heavenly Man in His own unworldly separateness upon earth, of which the manna speaks. And so the apostle, after exhorting the Ephesian saints against the lawlessness of the Gentiles, urges, "But ye have not so learned Christ; if so be that ye have heard Him, and have been taught by Him as the truth is in Jesus, -that ye have put off, concerning the former conversation, the old man." "Christ" is the Lord’s official name, according to which He has done His blessed work, and is on high after having done it "Jesus" is His personal name on earth. They would not have so learned His work for them as to give way to Gentile laxity if they had heard Him and been taught by Him as the Man "Jesus." They must keep the quails in connection with the manna, as God gave them first, not set them against one another, as the people were doing here. God’s answer to which is, not to withhold the quails; but to give them in large abundance, for the cross and the grace of the cross are all His delight. But when the people, instead of being humbled and broken down by His goodness, take greedily for the indulgence of their lusts, the flesh between their teeth becomes a mortal plague of which they die. Christ dishonored must become, thus, the cause of divine judgment on those who dishonor Him.
This is every way consistent and indeed what history, the history of the professing church, gives witness to abundantly. The profession of Christ and of the cross by carnal men, ignorant of the grace they vaunted and abused, untaught in the truth that is in Jesus, has wrought many a pestilential disorder of which it seemed as if the very Church itself would perish. The graves of Kibroth-hattaa-vah, -the "graves of lust" -lie all along the road by which we have reached our present station in the wilderness; and never were they perhaps more numerous than in the Laodicea of today. Let the question be honestly entertained by those who read this, Have we so learned Christ as to have been taught by Him as the truth is in Jesus?
(3) Connected with this, and as remedial for it, we find the ordinance of the seventy elders, whose special function as given here is that of prophecy -the extension of the spirit which is in Moses, and which in Eldad and Medad is introduced into the camp. We must consider these things in some detail.
In the first place, that they are "elders" is of primary importance; and elders, not simply officially, for that they are to be officers also is stated distinctly, as a thing apart. "Elders" belong to that patriarchal system, which is at least so eminently natural: men of years, and thus of gathered experience, and of weight in their generation corresponding to it: "Elders whom thou knowest to be elders," the Lord says to Moses; those who really answer in character to their years.
They are, moreover, to be "officers," or overseers, of the people, -those who as fathers are entrusted with the discipline to be maintained among the people of God. An exactly corresponding connection between "elders" and "overseers" we find in the New Testament, the function of the overseer being not teaching but "rule," although they might teach also if they had gift for it. No one would suppose that the power to teach would be only possessed by men in years, however suited it might be when found in them.
But the seventy chosen from among these are to have another talent entrusted to them: they are to share with Moses the burden of the people, and for this they are to share the Spirit that rests upon Moses. They too are to be prophets, to bring the word of God directly to the people of God, and by its means to stay departure from Him. Of what they uttered we have not, indeed, a single word. It is not any particular message that is intended to have significance for us, but simply the fact of their prophesying itself, the prophesying of elders who are overseers of the congregation. What are we to learn by this in this connection?
Prophecy we shall find to be the constant resource in days of apostasy. When the priesthood fail in the days of Eli, Samuel is thus raised up to stand between the people and God. When the kings have failed in Israel, the prophets come into ever-increasing importance. When the regular order is disturbed, and the usual channels of blessings are shut up, prophecy is the sign of the sovereign grace of God pouring itself forth through new channels of its own creation.
It connects itself, moreover, with individual faith and the energy which stands for God in the midst of departure. The prophet -for we are not now discussing the exceptional case of Balaam -is the "man of God." James introduces Elijah in his first words in Israel, as the righteous man of fervent effectual prayer, which shuts the heavens and restrains the earth from fruit. And he has before this adduced" the prophets who have spoken to you in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience." Prophesying was not, as the priesthood was, something successional and heritable, but a distinct gift to each person who received it.
The blessing in it is, that the voice of the living God utters itself in the prophet, bringing home His word to the present condition and need of men, making them aware of His presence before which they stand, putting them in connection with Him, and under Him, to be guided and controlled by Him. Is not this just the recall of the people here to that wherewith they had started? Is it not the remedy, therefore, for that which has arisen? God thus comes out after His wanderers to make known to them afresh the care which is over them and as thus seeking them with the intent to fill their lives with the power of His presence we can understand the special significance of Eldad and Medad, with their glorious names, "God hath loved," Love," prophesying in the camp. The Spirit of God breaks over boundary-lines, and refuses distance, in witness of the overflow of His heart toward the people: the irregularity apparent, and which unintelligent zeal would have rebuked, only making more noticeable the action of God. Worthy of Him are all His ways.
But the voice of prophecy breaks out especially around the entrance of the tabernacle, -the voice of recall how truly in that place! yet one with the voice in their midst. Those who draw near to the sanctuary of God hear it in its fullness, not as scattered voices, but the full harmony of the mind of God, much as the prophecy in the camp may have of special sweetness. As the prophesying of elders, it speaks in harmony with nature, in the wisdom acquired from experience, and in judicial utterances. Nature is here, in her highest and best, at one with the supernatural, as she always is, though in man grace must have restored him to his place, for this to be.
(4) Finally we find the quails sent, the mercy of God meeting abundantly the need of the people, but which, laid hold of without repentance or faith, the wrath of God falls upon them. The place of blessing becomes known as "the graves of lust."
3. The next stage of decline is a revelation. Truly one may say, The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint. That very prophecy, which we have just now seen as the remedy for the existing evil, fails as it were in Miriam, who drags down Aaron, the head of priesthood, with her in her fall. "Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses." The human leader of Israel is assailed from another side, and where he is most accessible. The matter of accusation is in a Cushite wife that he has taken but the spirit of self-exaltation is manifestly in their murmurings: "Hath Jehovah indeed only spoken by Moses? hath He not also spoken by us?" Who had denied it? But the evident intention is, to put themselves on an equality with Moses, and thus depose him from the pre-eminent place of leadership which God had given him. The Cushite wife was clearly the proof to them that morally he was no higher than they, perhaps not so high. The effect is, to excuse themselves from obedience.
It should be evident that Miriam and Aaron here stand for the people of God in that prophetical and priestly character with which they are endowed according to the grace of Christianity. Significant it is that God makes Peter, who has been by man exalted to the chief place of authority in the ritualistic church, to give utterance to the truth that destroys ritualism altogether: first, that we are born again," not in baptism, but of the incorruptible seed of the Word of God, that Word "which by the gospel is preached unto you" (1Pe 1:23-25); and, secondly, that all believers are "a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." (1Pe 2:5.) Other priesthood in the Church of Christ can no man find than this, which is under the high-priesthood of Christ in heaven.
As for prophecy, the same apostle exhorts, "If any man speak, let him speak as oracles of God." (1Pe 4:11.) And the apostle of the Gentiles desires for the Corinthians that all might prophesy. (1Co 14:5.) While there was a distinct prophetic gift which belonged only to the few, there was, as one may say, a prophetic spirit, which should be found in all the people of God. To "speak as oracles of God" is to be God’s mouthpiece in such sort as to be used of Him as those with Him, and having His mind, -capable, therefore, of uttering it distinctly: "If thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as My mouth." (Jer 15:19.)
In Moses we find a prophet with whom as seen here none could compare among mere men, and whom we have seen acting in priestly character before the consecration of Aaron, the ruler also, under God, of the redeemed people: fit type, therefore, in these respects, of Him who is the Head and Leader of the New Testament. It is not difficult to see in this uprise of Miriam and Aaron against Moses, how the Church has asserted her own competency and independence of her Lord. And indeed His love to the stranger has been, in the eyes of those proud of their place of covenanted privilege, an offense unworthy of Him. So with Israel who believed not His mercy to the Gentiles; and so with the Gentile church itself, building itself up upon its dowry of the Spirit, and entrenching itself within lines of rigid sacerdotalism. The dispensational application is in both cases clear.
Individually also, when the soul has turned from its manna food, and its joy in Christ has waned and become low, how often does it stiffen into a hard ecclesiasticism which, while it may speak much of grace, ignores it, and practically refuses the rule of Christ. Indeed, if He suit us not, how can His rule do so? Yet, as the Spirit of God here, as with the manna before, pauses to remind us of the character of that which is rejected, we are bidden to mark the gentleness of that rule against which they revolt. God had chosen the very meekest man on earth as the ruler of His people. How can we fail to remember those words in precisely similar connection, Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest to your souls"? This is not, as many think, the yoke He bears or has borne, that He invites us to share with Him, but the yoke which as Lord He imposes. The shepherd’s rod is a sweet badge of authority for our Moses, and this is "the good Shepherd, who layeth down His life for the sheep." Who would not submit? His yoke means rest from restlessness, rest from the misery of our own ways, -green pastures, and tranquil waters. Yet, alas! we can murmur.
God is holy in His grace. His anger is kindled, and He summons the three into His presence, to declare His approbation of Moses, faithful in all God’s house: with him He speaks mouth to mouth manifestly, and the similitude of Jehovah he shall behold. Yet these words are not fulfilled but transcended by the greater glory of Him who has been indeed "faithful," not in relation to the earthly but the heavenly tabernacle, and who is "Son over God’s house," not merely "servant in" it. "Whose house are we," adds the apostle (Heb 3:5-6). "Jesus Christ the righteous" is He to whom God has given the people of His love, and of this we find the heart of the Lord full, where He speaks as One now going to the Father (Joh 17:1-26). Faithful to us, faithful to Him, -this is He to whose care we are committed; this is He against whom we can murmur. He whose word is God’s word indeed, -who not merely beholds Jehovah’s similitude, but is Himself the "express image of the Father." (Heb 1:3.) Dear Lord, wake up our hearts!
The cloud removes from the tabernacle; Miriam is discovered to be leprous. She who had been exalting herself among the people of the Lord is now excluded from them, and from approach to Him the organ of whose communications to the people she had vaunted herself to be. Israel is even thus fulfilling her seven days, shut out, yet to be restored. For Babylon, the false church, unrepentant to the last, there will be utter exclusion. The principle is always true: while for those humbled there is grace when they accept the humiliation.
4. We now come to the decisive point in the history of the wilderness, the refusal of the people to enter the land, when brought to its very borders, by which they incur the penalty of forty years of wandering, and the death of the whole generation (except two persons) in the wilderness. For these, therefore, the whole character of their life is altered. They are not pilgrims any more, but wanderers; if not aimlessly, yet their aim mere self-preservation for these forty years, so much so that the record of them is not given to us: we have only a few incidents carefully chosen, and which reveal a condition of things conformable to this beginning. Progress stopped does not stop declension, which ripens on the contrary into that rebellion of Korah and his company, which is the crowning sin of all. Of this period it is that God marks the character in Amos afterward in the inquiry, "Have ye offered unto Me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel? But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chinn your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves." (Amo 5:25-26.) Circumcision likewise ceases, as we see by the renewal of it when they enter Canaan. (Jos 5:2-6.) Thus the very sign of their covenant with Jehovah is lost, and grace alone carries them at last through Jordan, and gives them possession of the land from which they turn back here.
And still "these things happened unto them for types, and are written for our admonition." The Christian church as "partakers of the heavenly calling" (Heb 3:1), have but too faithfully imitated the manners of an unbelieving generation, and instead of going on to possess themselves of a heavenly portion, have turned back to the world: a state of things so long and so well established now, that it has the prescription of antiquity. It is orthodox to speak of the Christian world, mysticism to talk seriously of being strangers in it. That the little seed of the parable should become a great tree is no more a wonder, and that Christians have "reigned as kings" even from the apostles’ times can be proved clearly enough from Scripture: "without us" they have not as yet found manuscript authority to omit however.
Alas! the application of the chapters now before us is most easy: there is no skill required to hit so broad a target. Tears and prayers are more our need than satire, and an honest self-judgment which will not spare at home what we denounce abroad -will not cherish our own peculiar form of worldliness, while refusing other forms. May the Lord Himself apply, wherever conviction is needed, the story of failure here.
(1) The commission of the spies and its fulfillment come first in place. We should not know from the account before us what we find in Deuteronomy, that this spying out the land originated with the people, and not with God. We need not wonder, therefore, that it ends disastrously. Yet God sanctions it: how much may He have in this way to sanction, as what must be because of what we are! and how much trial does our unbelief necessitate for us! He had told them all that they needed to know of the goodness of the land, and assured them of His gift of it to them, as of His casting out for their sins the present inhabitants. what more did they need to know? And yet this side of the matter is in this book entirely ignored, and the whole seems to proceed from God Himself, as if man had no part in it. In truth, the evil of it was in the state of their hearts only, the motive which with them was unbelief; faith finds encouragement in that which discomfits the unbelieving. each is confirmed in its own way.
The names of the spies are given us, each a prince in his tribe, and representing it. If we had skill to read their meanings aright, in the connection in which they stand, we should doubtless find light given us as to the reason of their failure for the most part, although they are unanimous at first as to the land itself. The significance of the names of the two faithful ones is plain, and should encourage us to look further. "Caleb" means, no doubt, "whole-hearted," as the man is; and he stands third among the first three of the twelve, his position being in exact accord numerically with his name. He is the son of Jephunneh, or "who is regarded with favor": the apprehension of grace being that which leads to devotedness. Joshua stands second in the second three, and it is remarkable that each of these three speaks of deliverance in some way: Igal, "he redeems;" Hoshea, "saviour;" Palti, "deliverance." Hoshea, whom Moses named Jehoshua, "Jehovah the Saviour," is the son of Nun, "son:" is it because as Son of God (Jehovah the Son) He saves? taking the place of Son of Man also, to bring us to obedience to the Father?
Joshua represents Christ in us, who leads His people into the land; Caleb the spirit of wholeheartedness which will not miss what God has made over to us. It is no wonder that in this account, therefore, the special emphasis should be laid on Caleb, in whom our responsibility is emphasized. In the searching of the land Hebron is prominent, Abraham’s dwelling-place for so long, and it is no more a wonder that in it -("communion") -or in connection with it, the glorious fruitage of Eshcol should be found. Yet nowhere does the power of the enemy seem so great as there three sons of Anak (the "long-necked") oppose possession of Hebron: children of pride, as we may easily conceive them, for what more effectually bars from communion with God than pride!
Here we are reminded that Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt, which chronologically means nothing more distinct than that it was of ancient date: spiritually read, it is of much greater significance. Zoan was at this time, as it was again in after-times, the capital of Egypt, though upon its borders. and on that account seems to have received its name, which means "a place of departure;" indeed, Mr. Poole tells us, "distinctly indicates the place of departure of a migratory people." How strange a name for the seat of Egypt’s empire; and yet what a striking delineation of what the world is! its place of highest eminence so near its border; its seat of dominion only a place of the most transient occupation, as it were a traveler’s lodging, and no more!
But Hebron, built seven years before it, speaks of what was ordained for us in God’s perfect plan, before this wheel of the world began its rounds. Well may it abide for us, after the history of the world is rolled up and passed away. What peaceful assurance is there in this, that all the sons of Anak shall not suffice to keep Israel out of her inheritance!
(2) The spies bring back their report: Yes, the land is good; here is the fruit of it: God has told the truth of it; it is a land that floweth with milk and honey. Only the people are strong, and their cities strong; and the land is filled with them. Faith in the true-hearted says, Let us go up at once: we are well able to take possession." But the mass have not faith: the very men that had gone up with Caleb have no sympathy with him; the people are stronger than they, -true enough, no doubt, reckoning without God as they are doing. And then they doubly contradict themselves, as unbelief constantly does, and declare in spite of the strength of its swarming population, that it eats up its inhabitants.
Upon this, the unbelief of the people breaks out into irrepressible lamentation, and then into clamor against Jehovah Himself openly and by name. He who had miraculously led them hitherto had only taken this out-of-the-way course to destroy them by the sword of the Canaanites in the land which was now before them. Well, they would defeat His purpose, make a new leader, and return to Egypt. In vain Joshua and Caleb interpose: unbelief is unreason itself. The multitude only bid them to stone them with stones. Then God must answer for Himself, and the glory of Jehovah breaks forth in the tent of meeting before the eyes of the rebellious people.
(3) Jehovah must sanctify Himself, therefore, in judgment, if there be no faith to entertain His grace. Thus it was at the end of the Jewish dispensation; thus it will be at the end of the Christian one; and so the earth will be filled with His glory, as He says here; "when His judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness." (Isa 26:9.)
Again, also, is the glory of Moses seen, as the one upon whose mediation, as type of the great Mediator, the blessing of the people depends. God had in fact, as Moses pleads, identified His glory with the salvation of His people and their being brought into the land, and in the wilderness declared Himself as the One who forgave iniquity, transgression, and sin, even while also He did not clear the guilty. The generation that had now tempted Him to the limit of His forbearance would perish in the wilderness. Caleb, on the other hand, as following Him fully, should enter into the land. Thus Jehovah is sanctified in judgment and in mercy.
(4) The forty years are announced in a distinct communication. In them, those that had desired to die in the wilderness should die there, while their little ones whom they had mourned over as to fall a prey to the enemy, should be brought into the land in the meanwhile bearing the consequences of their fathers’ sin, as needful for those who were children of such fathers: for each day of fruitless search a year in the wilderness. Thank God, however, for the very reason that these were appointed of Him, we cannot say that these were fruitless. Shall we say so at last of any of the Lord’s ways with us here? Nay, the more painful even, the more profitable. Divine love could inflict no useless pain, even as it cannot withhold the pain that profits.
(5) Governmental results soon follow. The ten faithless spies perish of the plague. The people, smitten by Jehovah’s words, and realizing the greatness of their loss, pass from despair into a burst of courage and determination, all too late. As not accepting the chastening of the Lord, Moses warns them that they are but rebelling under a new form, but his admonitions are as vain as ever. They presume to go up to the top of the hill, but the Amalekites and Canaanites come down upon them, and chase them as far as Hormah, the "place of ban," significant of the sentence which lay upon them.
Thus, "they could not enter in because of unbelief," as the apostle says and here is the crowning failure also in the professing Church, the failure to enter into the heavenly portion, so as to become from pilgrims only desert wanderers. Cain condemned to be this, in the land of his vagabondage built a city; and Christianity, when it has lost its heavenly character, takes but the more resolute hold of the earth. Thus comes into existence Babylon the Great.
5. Just at this point there is an interruption of the history, in what at first seems a strange manner, to introduce certain laws relating to sacrifices they should offer when they come into the land. In fact, however, while the reference to their possession of the land at this time (when they have just refused it and been turned back from it) is a plain encouragement to faith, and assurance of the unfailing grace of God toward the people, -there are also in it, if we look deeper, principles of divine government to be found which have the plainest application to the history, as they come undeniably in the right place according to the numerical structure. How God maintains His grace and yet His government we find very clearly, and it prepares us for the development of these things which so shortly follows in the third division of the book.
(1) First, we have a law given as to the offerings which they should offer on their coming into the land. How comforting this quiet assurance that after all they would come into the land; and that with full hearts which would need to express themselves to God in free gifts and offerings such as are here referred to. When it would be in their hearts to bring such an offering, then God Himself prescribes the way in which it was to be done. For, alas! in our best moods and highest purposes we blunder sadly, and need as everywhere to be controlled and fashioned by His thoughts. here it is prescribed that with every animal sacrifice of this sort, there shall be a meal-offering and drink-offering in due proportion to the value of the animal. Thus with a lamb a tenth part of an ephah of flour mingled with a fourth part of a hin of oil, and for a drink-offering a fourth part of a hin of wine. For a ram there were to be two tenths of flour, a third of a hin of oil and of wine. For a bullock, three tenths of flour, with a half-hin of oil and wine. We have seen that in the meal-offering Christ is presented in His life down here, as the sacrificial offering speaks of His atoning death. These have to each other, therefore, the same relation as the quails and the manna in Exo 16:1-36. In the second subdivision here, we have found Israel despising the manna, while lusting for the quails. To such an error, therefore, this law of the offerings plainly applies. We must not divorce from the death that atones for us the realization of the value of Christ’s precious life. Nay, the true apprehension of the one will correspond to that of the other. Again, though in a different connection, we are reminded that to "learn Christ" aright, we must be "taught by Him as the truth is in Jesus." Thus the law here given clearly contemplates Israel’s failure and its lessons, as given in the preceding history. Let us learn from the repetition of the lesson how jealous God is, how jealous we ought to be, that we do not use Christ merely as a lightning-rod to keep off judgment from our houses, but that we enter into and lay hold of the ways of His life on earth. It is this which implies true fellowship and knowledge of the meaning of His death itself.
We must learn here sharply to distinguish what we must at the same time hold firmly together. The cross was not simply an incident in the life of Jesus. His life was not vicarious as His death was. The suffering of His life had, none of it, the character of His death. The cross stands alone in this sense, that there for the first time the Saviour of sinners stood- in the sinner’s place, and bore the burden of our sins in His own body. There and nowhere else did the wrath which was due to sin fall upon Him. How different what He could say up to the cross, "I know that Thou hearest Me always," from that which we find in the twenty-second psalm as fulfilled upon the cross, "I cry . . . and Thou hearest not" What utter contrast between the light of God’s favor in which He daily walked, and the darkness of withdrawal, interpreted by the cry, "Why hast Thou forsaken Me?"! Had that shadow been upon all His life, we should not have had the blessed picture that we now have, of One representing God upon the earth, as on the cross He presented man -fallen and sinful man -to God. It was, of course, all through, the same blessed Person; yet in these two places with what a difference! There must be a strange blur upon the sight of him who cannot discern it.
We must distinguish, in order to retain both these precious things in all their preciousness. The lesson here is that we must, along with the burnt-offering which is for acceptance, bring to God the meal-offering also, which speaks of Christ in person and life; and the faith that does this will, if real, be fruitful: "He that sinneth," says the apostle, hath not seen Christ, neither known Him."
Lack of proportion in these offerings shows at once the tendency to separate between them. Can we know better the work for us without increasing in the knowledge of Him who has done the work? And with the knowledge of Him, if real, grows also that joy in Him which is typified in the drink-offering, a joy not effusive in words merely, or sentiment, but in spending and being spent for Him. And the measure of the oil for the meal-offering is the measure of the wine for the drink-offering: the measure of the Spirit that is found in our apprehension of Christ is the measure of our joy and devotedness.
In all this, it is specially pressed also that there is one law for the stranger and for the home-born: the grace that is in Christ welcomes all alike. That which for the Jew can be only on condition of faith is for the Gentile also wherever there is faith.
(2) Most of the remainder of the chapter (to the end of ver. 36) is a new communication from Jehovah, the account of the Sabbath-breaker being only an illustrative case. And here the subject is clearly the difference between sins of inadvertence and presumptuous sins to which the law of the heave-offering of the dough is but the preface. This law necessarily also contemplates their coming into the land. By its connection here it would not seem to have, like the sheaf of first-fruits or the loaves of Pentecost, any dispensational significance. Rather would it seem to enforce God’s claim to first remembrance when partaking of the blessing which His hand has given. A very simple lesson and yet there is more danger of forgetting Him amid our blessings than in our need. It is more simple for us to pray" when we are "in affliction," than it is, when we are "merry," to "sing psalms." Thus it is His mercy also that reminds us of the claim of His mercy, and permits us to bring our gift to Him, and that He will thus partake with us in His own bounty. Certainly it is condescending love, not need, that makes Him do so. For us, it is the only thing that sanctifies and makes safe our blessing.
After all, where God was thus before the soul, and there was entire honest- heartedness, not only an individual but the whole congregation might err, and error would need atonement. Where God’s Word is perfect, and able to furnish thoroughly to every good work, failure must be, no matter what the point, our own sin. If ignorant, yet why were we ignorant? Ignorance means negligence in some way: stupidity, want of ability to take in the truth, is not excused as if it were the fault of the mind only: God giveth wisdom to the simple. The "fool" is, in Scripture, he for whom God is not. (Psa 14:1.) If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, and it shall be given him. (Jas 1:5.) This, then, being true, the plea of ignorance only avails in one way, -to distinguish from presumptuous sin. Thus of the sin of his unconverted state the apostle could say, "Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief:" (1Ti 1:13.) And so he says to professing Christians, If we sin willfully, after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking-for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries." (Heb 10:26-27.)
There are doubtless sins also which come between sins of ignorance and such as in fact are the "willful" sins of those who, with "knowledge of the truth," show themselves "adversaries. Peter in the high-priest’s palace is a clear example of this. When he denied with oaths and curses that he knew the Man, certainly it was not ignorance that spoke in him; and yet he was not an "adversary." He had got, through self-confidence, into a place where circumstances were too much for him, and the fear of man wrung from him words base in their cowardice, and to be bitterly repented of. But an adversary he was not; and the grace of the Lord acts in its own blessed way toward the transgressor. This class of sins is not considered in the passage before us.
But from these sins of ignorance, who can declare that he is free? Not the Psalmist, when he makes the similar inquiry, "Who can understand his errors? cleanse Thou me from secret faults." (Psa 19:12.) Not the apostle, when he declares, "For I know nothing against myself; yet am I not thereby justified; but He that judgeth me is the Lord." (1Co 4:4.) Here is at once the integrity of one exercised and self-judged, free from all known offense, and yet the full acknowledgment that there might easily be things wrong, of which he was ignorant, and as to which in the confidence of His grace he could commit himself to Him who by and by will bring all to light. If none of us ought to be able to say less than this, who on the other hand can say more?
And yet these unknown sins are sins, and need, as we see here, the sin-offering. And the whole congregation might be thus guilty: -for us, the whole Church. As we look back, indeed, it is only too plain that the whole Church has been, in fact, involved in ignorance of things to us now so plain that we marvel how any one should be ignorant. Who shall then say that the whole Church of to-day may not be convicted yet of some similar error? We must not so take this, however as to make uncertain what we have really learnt from Scripture. It is the disregard of it that has been ever the cause of error. Scripture is not uncertain; nor, where God has really taught the soul, will it be in that uncertain. Rather, what we have to do is, to test all we may have learnt of man by that to which alone is the ultimate appeal, remembering that God, not the Church, is the Teacher, -His Word, not the Church’s voice, the test of truth.
So for every inadvertence we must bring the sin-offering. Let us notice, how ever, that in the case before us the burnt-offering is larger than the sin-offering. While the guilt of ignorance is confessed, what is emphasized for the soul is the need of knowing better the fullness of the value of that in which we stand before God. It is in the nearness implied in this that we enter aright into the truth that God has given us: we learn better his mind as we draw nearer to Him, and the glory of Christ is revealed with more power to our hearts.
The doom of the Sabbath-breaker illustrates plainly what is presumptuous sin; but this form of it must be chosen with divine wisdom rather than any other, and it speaks most solemnly to us to whom God preaches a "rest" which He will not have dishonored. We are in the sabbatical rest of the day of atonement, and woe to him who refuses to accept what the work of Christ has procured, but must gather the sticks of his own "dead works," to be fuel for the fire on the day that shall soon come.
(3) And now again we have what the spiritual sense alone can interpret to us: the people are commanded to make upon the borders of their garments tassels, and upon the tassels a cord of blue, that they may look upon the tassels, and remember the commandments of Jehovah, and do them, that they may be holy to their God. The tassel is literally a "flower," from a root which means "to shine," and which is used of the plate upon the high-priest’s forehead, which similarly is connected with a lace of blue. (Exo 28:36.) This, it is plain, is not a mere casual resemblance: as in the high-priest’s diadem holiness becomes the crown of the garments, here we find it on the border of them, next the ground: the lace of blue, the heavenly color, reminding us that heavenliness is holiness. This, where the garment touches the ground, secures the habits, as it were, from the invasion of earthliness. While the flower-like form may attest the "beauty of holiness," and that it is a living growth where real. Full consecration is clearly the lesson of the tassel and its attachment.
6. We return to the wilderness-history, to pursue to the end, now just at hand, the course of decline and departure from God among .the people. Korah’s rebellion is the last stage here, as Jude prophetically sees it to be the end of the evil in Christendom, already begun in his day. Ungodly men, ordained of old to this condemnation, had already crept in among them, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only true God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. Their course would thus end, as the apostle Paul also foretells (2Th 2:1-17), in complete apostasy: "Woe unto them!" he says, "for they have gone in the way of Cain, and run greedily after the error of Salaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Kore." As with the prophets of old, he sees the future as if it had already taken place, and gives the manner of the development of the evil: first, "the way of Cain," -that is, self-righteousness, which has no need of the atoning sacrifice; then the hireling spirit of Balaam, seducing for reward, which we find again in Pergamos (Rev 2:1-29); finally, what we have here, the gainsaying of Kore, -the climax of their iniquity, in which they perish. This is not a picture merely of exaggerated ecclesiasticism: from the first, they were in spirit alienated from Christianity; then they could trade coolly with error for personal advantage; the final step is open opposition to God, and Him whom "God hath made both Lord and Christ:" thus their doom is assured.
Korah is the Leader of a grand conspiracy: a Levite of the family of Kohath, a son of Jitzhar, in that line of ministry which has to do with the most precious things of the tabernacle, yet in spirit dead to all, as his name -probably "ice" may intimate. His associates are in the first place the sons of Reuben, the rejected first-born, herein being a natural reason for their readiness to join the revolt against the divinely constituted leaders. Their names are Dathan, "laws, decrees," and Abiram, "my father is exalted." These are the sons of Eliab, "My God is Father." These meanings, while in themselves not evil, certainly suit well the pretensions which they support, which would have leveled priesthood and Levite ministry under the plea of the holiness of all the people. Dathan thus could speak of "laws" of ancient right, as that of the first-born, set aside in favor of the new restrictions. Abiram could point to his own father as exalted by this natural right. While their common parent’s name might suggest that higher claim, which in fact they make, of equal relationship to God on all sides. They have a companion also, but who appears no more, -another Reubenite, whose name, "On," signifies "labor," or "distress," the son of Peleth, probably "separation," "distinction." In this, one might think that he heard the socialistic arguments of the present day.
All this may seem as if it were dreaming; yet not all names would fit the facts like these. And certainly the day that Jude speaks of, connected, as he connects it, with the judgment of evil in Christendom and the coming of the Lord, -a day too solemn to permit trifling about it, and which may well be near at hand, -has features with which it is in strange accordance. More broadly expressed only than in the party of Korah, "the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man" are already current phrases, which go not seldom with the rejection of Christ whether as Moses or as Aaron, -as Lord or Priest; and we have many a son of Levi heading this revolt. Nay, if we understand prophecy, and can believe before it comes to pass, we may even find a reason for On’s disappearance, with this one brief notice, from the scene before us. For, assuredly, socialism, while it will have its part in bringing on the evil days of which we are speaking, soon will disappear, and give place to a worse despotism than it now laments. Korah may indeed say that all the assembly are holy," when he seeks to destroy the authority of Moses and Aaron; but Moses’ words show what is hidden behind this: and the last Antichrist who heads the apostasy on the eve of which, as it would seem we are, will be himself both priest and king, if Christ shall not. We cannot here enter on the proofs of all these things. They will be found, elsewhere by those who need them; those who do not need, the shadow of the last days in Korah’s revolt will be traced easily. It is but a shadow, and it passes quickly. According to Moses’ word, the earth opens and swallows up the chief transgressors: Korah, Dathan, and Abiram go down alive into sheol, again the type of its more awful counterpart, when the beast and the false prophet are cast alive into the lake of fire. (Rev 20:1-15.) The two hundred and fifty men who dare to test their title to priesthood by the offering of incense are consumed by fire.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv29, 35
Numbers
HOBAB
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Num 10:29.
There is some doubt with regard to the identity of this Hobab. Probably he was a man of about the same age as Moses, his brother-in-law, and a son of Jethro, a wily Kenite, a Bedouin Arab. Moses begs him to join himself to his motley company, and to be to him in the wilderness ‘instead of eyes.’ What did Moses want a man for, when he had the cloud? What do we want common-sense for, when we have God’s Spirit? What do we want experience and counsel for, when we have divine guidance promised to us? The two things work in together. The cloud led the march, but it was very well to have a man that knew all about the oases and the wells, the situation of which was known only to the desert-born tribes, and who could teach the helpless slaves from Goshen the secrets of camp life. So Moses pressed Hobab to change his position, to break with his past, and to launch himself into an altogether new and untried sort of life.
And what does he plead with him as the reason? ‘We will do thee good, for the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel.’ Probably Hobab looked rather shy at the security, for I suppose he was no worshipper of Jehovah, and he said, ‘No; I had rather go home to my own people and my own kindred and my father’s house where I fit in, and keep to my own ways, and have something a little more definite to lay hold of than your promise, or the promise of your Jehovah that lies behind it. These are not solid, and I am going back to my tribe.’ But Moses pressed and he at last consented, and the following verses suggest that the arrangement was made satisfactorily, and that the journeyings began prosperously. In the Book of Judges we find traces of the presence of Hobab’s descendants as incorporated among the people of Israel. One of them came to be somebody, the Jael who struck the tent-peg through the temples of the sleeping Sisera, for she is called ‘the wife of Heber the Kenite.’ Probably, then, in some sense Hobab must have become a worshipper of Jehovah, and have cast in his lot with his brother-in-law and his people. I do not set Hobab up as a shining example. We do not know much about his religion. But it seems to me that this little glimpse into a long-forgotten and unimportant life may teach us two or three things about the venture of faith, the life of faith, and the reward of faith.
I. The venture of faith.
I have already said that Hobab had nothing in the world to trust to except Moses’ word, and Moses’ report of God’s Word. ‘We will do you good; God has said that He will do good to us, and you shall have your share in it.’ It was a grave thing, and, in many circumstances, would have been a supremely foolish thing, credulous to the verge of insanity, to risk all upon the mere promise of one in Moses’ position, who had so little in his own power with which to fulfil the promise; and who referred him to an unseen divinity, somewhere or other; and so drew bills upon heaven and futurity, and did not feel himself at all bound to pay them when they fell due, unless God should give him the cash to do it with. But Hobab took the plunge, he ventured all upon these two promises-Moses’ word, and God’s word that underlay it.
Now that is just what we have to do. For, after all talking about reasons for belief, and evidences of religion, and all the rest of it, it all comes to this at last-will you risk everything on Jesus Christ’s bare word? There are plenty of reasons for doing so, but what I wish to bring out is this, that the living heart and root of true Christianity is neither more nor less than the absolute and utter reliance upon nothing else but Christ, and therefore on His word. He did not even condescend to give reasons for that reliance, for His most solemn assurance was just this, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you.’ That is as much as to say, ‘If you do not see in Me, without any more argument, reason enough for believing Me, you do not see Me at all.’
Christ did not argue-He asserted, and in default of all other proof, if I might venture to say so, He put His own personality into the scales and said, ‘There, that will outweigh everything.’ So no wonder that ‘they were astonished at His doctrine,’-not so much at the substance of it as at the tone of it, ‘for He taught them with authority.’
But what right had He to teach them with authority? What right has He to present Himself there in front of us and proclaim, ‘I say unto you, and there is an end of it’? The heart and essence of Christian faith is doing, in a far sublimer fashion, precisely what this wild Arab did, when he uprooted himself from the conditions in which his life had grown up, and flung himself into an unknown future, on bare trust in a bare word. Jesus Christ asks us to do the same by Him. Whether His word comes to us revealing, or commanding, or promising, it is absolute, and, for His true followers, ends all controversy, all hesitation, all reluctance. When He commands it is ours to obey and live. And when He promises it is for us to twine all the tendrils of our expectations round that faithful word, and by faith to make ‘the anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast.’ The venture of faith takes a word for the most solid thing in the universe, and the Incarnate Word of God for the basis of all our hope, the authority for all our conduct, ‘the Master-light of all our seeing.’
II. Hobab suggests to us, secondly-
The sort of life that follows the venture of faith. The hindrances to his joining Moses were plainly put by himself. He said in effect, ‘I will not come; I will depart to mine own land and to my kindred. Why should I attach myself to a horde of strangers, and go wandering about the desert for the rest of my life, looking out for encampments for them, when I can return to where I have been all my days; and be surrounded by the familiar atmosphere of friends and relatives?’ But he bethought himself that there was a nobler life to live than that, and because he was stirred by the impulse of reliance on Moses and his promise, and perhaps by some germ of reliance on Moses’ God, he finally said, ‘The die is cast. I choose my side. I will break with the past. I turn my back on kindred and home. Here I draw a broad line across the page, and begin over again in an altogether new kind of life. I identify myself with these wanderers; sharing their fortunes, hoping to share their prosperity, and taking their God for my God.’ He had perhaps not been a nomad before, for there still are permanent settlements as well as nomad encampments in Arabia, as there were in those days, and he and his relatives, from the few facts that we know of them, seem to have had a fixed home, with a very narrow zone of wandering round it. So Hobab, an old man probably, if he was anything like the age of his connection by marriage, Moses, who was eighty at this time, makes up his mind to begin a new career.
Now that is what we have to do. If we have faith in Christ and His promise, we shall not say, ‘I am going back to my kindred and to my home.’ We shall be prepared to accept the conditions of a wanderer’s life. We shall recognise and feel, far more than we ever have done, that we are indeed ‘pilgrims and sojourners’ here. Dear Christian friends, we have no business to call ourselves Christ’s men, unless the very characteristic of our lives is that we are drawn ever forward by the prospect of future good, and unless that future is a great deal more solid and more operative upon us, and tells more on our lives, than this intrusive, solid-seeming present that thrusts itself between us and our true home. That is a sure saying. The Christian obligation to live a life of detachment, even while diligent in duty, is not to be brushed aside as pulpit rhetoric and exaggeration, but it is the plainest teaching of the New Testament. I wish it was a little more exemplified in the daily life of the people who call themselves Christians.
If I am not living for the unseen and the future, what right have I to say that I am Christ’s at all? If the shadows are more than the substance to me; if this condensed vapour and fog that we call reality has not been to our apprehension thinned away into the unsubstantial mist that it is, what have the principles of Christianity done for us, and what worth is Christ’s word to us? If I believe Him, the world is-I do not say, as the sentimental poet put it, ‘but a fleeting show, for man’s illusion given’;-but as Paul puts it, a glass which may either reveal or obscure the realities beyond; and according as we look at, or look through, ‘the things seen and temporal,’ do we see, or miss, ‘the things unseen and eternal.’ So, then, the life of faith has for its essential characteristic-because it is a life of reliance on Christ’s bare word-that future good is consciously its supreme aim. That will detach us, as it did Hobab, from home and kindred, and make us feel that we are ‘pilgrims and sojourners.’
III. Lastly, our story suggests to us-
The rewards of faith.
‘Come with us,’ says Moses; ‘we are journeying unto the place of which the Lord said, I will give it you. Come thou with us, and we will do thee what goodness the Lord shall do unto us.’ He went, and neither he nor Moses ever saw the land, or at least never set their feet on it. Moses saw it from Pisgah, but probably Hobab did not even get so much as that.
So he had all his tramping through the wilderness, and all his work, for nothing, had he? Had he not better have gone back to Midian, and made use of the present reality, than followed a will-of-the-wisp that led him into a bog, if he got none of the good that he set out expecting to get? Then, did he make a mistake? Would he have been a wiser man if he had stuck to his first refusal? Surely not. It seems to me that the very fact of this great promise being given to this old-dare I call Hobab a ‘saint’? -to this old saint, and never being fulfilled at all in this world, compels us to believe that there was some gleam of hope, and of certainty, of a future life, even in these earliest days of dim and partial revelation.
To me it is very illuminative, and very beautiful, that the dying Jacob bursts in his song into a sudden exclamation, ‘I have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord!’ It is as if he had felt that all his life long he had been looking for what had never come, and that it could not be that God was going to let him go down to the grave and never grasp the good that he had been waiting for all his days. We may apply substantially the same thoughts to Hobab, and to all his like, and may turn them to our own use, and argue that the imperfections of the consequences of our faith here on earth are themselves evidences of a future, where all that Christ has said shall be more than fulfilled, and no man will be able to say, ‘Thou didst send me out, deluding me with promises which have all gone to water and have failed.’
Hobab dying there in the desert had made the right choice, and if we will trust ourselves to Christ and His faithful word, and, trusting to Him, will feel that we are detached from the present and that it is but as the shadow of a cloud, whatever there may be wanting in the results of our faith here on earth, there will be nothing wanting in its results at the last. Hobab did not regret his venture, and no man ever ventures his faith on Christ and is disappointed. ‘He that believeth shall not be confounded.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v11 Journeyings from Sinai to moab (Num_10:11 to Num_22:1)
Journeyings from Sinai to moab (Num_10:11 to Num_22:1)
After a stay at Sinai of nearly a year (cp. Num_10:11 with Exo_19:1) the signal is given for the breaking up of the camp. This second division of the book of Numbers relates the wanderings in the wilderness, and covers a period extending from the second to the fortieth year of the exodus: see Num_33:38; Deu_1:3. But as the events recorded in Num_10:14 to Num_14:45 took place during the first few months after leaving Sinai, and the death of Aaron in Num_20:22 was in the fortieth year, very little space is given to the events of the intervening thirty-eight years of desert life, more especially as Numbers 15, 18, 19 are taken up with laws. There are indeed but two events recorded in that long period, viz. the rebellion of Korah and his company, with which is connected the blossoming of Aaron's rod (16, 17), and the death of Miriam and murmuring of the people at Kadesh (Num_20:1-13). it appears, therefore, that while the period of sojourn in the wilderness was of supreme importance, by way of preparing the people socially and religiously for the occupation of the land of promise, it was uneventful. In all probability the Israelites led a fairly settled life, some of them scattered at a considerable distance from the headquarters of the camp, and moving about not always as one body but in separate detachments: see on Num_9:15-23. During the greater part of this period Kadesh seems to have been their headquarters. See on Num_13:26; Num_20:1, and cp. Deu_1:46. It was only near the end of this period that a concerted and continuous march was made from Kadesh to the plains of Moab (Numbers 21).
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The Departure from Sinai
12. Paran] see on Exo_15:22. They do not actually reach Paran till Exo_12:16.
29. In Exo_2:18; Moses's father-in-law is called Beuel and in Num_3:1; Num_4:18; Jethro. Here Hobab is called the son of Reuel (or Raguel), and therefore apparently the brother-in-law of Moses. But in Jdg_4:11 (RM) and perhaps here, too, he is called the father-in-law of Moses. There is therefore much uncertainty as to these names and relationships, which is increased by the fact that the word rendered father-in-law is of wide application. It has been supposed that the name Beuel in Exo_2:18 has been inserted by mistake, and that Hobab, otherwise called Jethro, was the son of Reuel and the fatherin-law of Moses. He was a Midianite and well acquainted with the country through which the Israelites were to pass. The service he rendered to them was not forgotten in after times, so that it may be inferred that he yielded to the pressing invitation of Moses: see Jdg_1:16; 1Sa_15:6.
35. When the ark set forward] i.e. whenever it set forward. Every stage of the journey was begun and ended with this prayer of invocation. Psalms 68 recalls this march of the people through the wilderness with God at their head to ensure victory.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv11, 29, 31 second month
second month
i.e. May.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv11, 29 The Departure from Sinai
The Departure from Sinai
v. 11. And it came to pass on the twentieth day of the second month, in the second year, after the departure from Egypt, that the cloud was taken up from off the Tabernacle of the Testimony, as a signal for striking the camp and moving on to the next station;
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v. 12. And the children of Israel took their journeys, they set forth on the continuation of their trip, out of the Wilderness of Sinai; and the cloud rested, came to rest in the Wilderness of Paran, the general direction of the march at this time being northward. The Wilderness of Paran is the great central plateau of the Sinaitic Peninsula, and shows the characteristic physical features of the entire country between Egypt and Canaan, rugged mountain ranges being traversed by desolate valleys, in some of which intermittent streams are found.
v. 13. And they first took their journey according to the commandment of the Lord by the hand of Moses, this being the first time since the giving of the Law that its precepts were carried out in a departure.
v. 14. In the first place, as the vanguard of the entire army, went the standard of the camp of the children of Judah according to their armies; and over his host was Nahshon, the son of Amminadab.
v. 15. And over the host of the tribe of the children of Issachar was Nethaneel, the son of Zuar.
v. 16. And over the host of the tribe of the children of Zebulun was Eliab, the son of Helon. Cf Num 2:3-9.
v. 17. And the Tabernacle was taken down; and the sons of Gershon and the sons of Merari set forward, bearing the Tabernacle, that is, the curtains and the framework of both the tent and the court, which they transported on the wagons furnished by the princes of the people, Num 7:6-8.
v. 18. And the standard of the camp of Reuben set forward according to their armies; and over his host was Elizur, the son of Shedeur.
v. 19. And over the host of the tribe of the children of Simeon was Shelumiel, the son of Zurishaddai.
v. 20. And over the host of the tribe of the children of Gad was Eliasaph, the son of Deuel. Cf Num 2:10-16.
v. 21. And the Kohathites set forward, bearing the Sanctuary, the sacred furniture and the holy vessels, Num 7:9; and the other, the Gershonites and the Merarites, did set up the Tabernacle against they came (until they reached the place). This was the reason why these two companies of Levites preceded the tribes led by the Reubenites, Cf Num 2:17, since they thereby gained enough time to have the tent erected before the Kohathites came with the furniture, the altars and the holy vessels.
v. 22. And the standard of the camp of the children of Ephraim set forward according to their armies; and over his host was Elishama, the son of Ammihud.
v. 23. And over the host of the tribe of the children of Manasseh was Gamaliel, the son of Pedahzur.
v. 24. And over the host of the tribe of the children of Benjamin was Abidan, the son of Gideoni. Cf Num 2:18-24.
v. 25. And the standard of the camp of the children of Dan set forward, which was the rearward of all the camps throughout their hosts; and over his host was Ahiezer, the son of Ammishaddai.
v. 26. And over the host of the tribe of the children of Asher was Pagiel, the son of Ocran.
v. 27. And over the host of the tribe of the children of Naphtali was Ahira, the son of Enan. Cf Num 2:25-31.
v. 28. Thus were the journeyings of the children of Israel according to their armies, when they set forward. It was all done decently and in order, without confusion and loss of time. Those that know and fear God do not live according to their own desire, but according to God’s will and command, following His leadership in everything.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv11, 14, 17, 21, 25, 29, 31, 33, 35 In the second year
In the second year
"In year 2." This refers to the second year after Yahweh brought the Israelites out of Egypt. (See: Ordinal Numbers)
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in the second month, on the twentieth day of the month
"on day 20 of month 2." This is the second month of the Hebrew calendar. (See: Hebrew Months and Ordinal Numbers)
the cloud was lifted
This can be stated in active form. AT: "the cloud rose up" or "Yahweh lifted the cloud" (See: Active or Passive)
the tabernacle of the covenant decrees
The tabernacle was also called by this longer name because the ark with the law of God was placed inside it. See how you translated this in Numbers 1:50.
Yahweh's command given through Moses
This can be stated in active form. AT: "the commands that Yahweh had given through Moses" (See: Active or Passive)
translationWords
year
day
tabernacle
covenant
decree
people group
Israel
desert
Sinai
Paran
command
Moses
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv11, 12, 13, 29, 33, 35, 36 10:11-36 Leaving Sinai was a pivotal moment in Israel’s…
10:11-36 Leaving Sinai was a pivotal moment in Israel’s history. Now the Israelites had the law and would be tested as to how they would keep it. The departure from Sinai was the beginning of the march toward Canaan, though it turned into a long journey (cp. Deut 1:6-8, 19). This passage summarizes the daily procedures on the journey.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.